there's something about ..... idol

Singapore Idol ended predictably.

I didn't follow the show that much until the last couple of weeks. One of my female friends is crazy about the show. She watches religiously and voted for her favourite singers.

Her favourite started with Jonathon Leong and later became Hady. During the final, she told me she voted about 10 times for Hady. So you could imagine her joy when Hady won.

She shouldn't have bothered.

It's no coincidence that another Malay won Singapore Idol. In fact, I have told my friend as way back during the final 4 or 5 that Hady would be in the Final 2 and will win the Idol. And my belief is not about his singing ability. Hady has a clean and boy next door image which make him more suited to be an "idol". But the end result wouldn't be any different if Hady has that rocker image as well.

I'm not racist. This is not a racist entry.

Hady won despite a better performance from Jonathon. Why?

With a viewership of around 300,000 each week, it's not a very big figure for the voting to be well spreaded across all social borders.

There are approximately 450,000 malays in Singapore and approximate 2.5m Chinese in Singapore. This figure can be found in www.singstat.gov.sg.

Most malay families watches Chanel 5 as their main channel. While most chinese families tuned in to Channel 8 as their main channel. Therefore, it's not difficult to derive that there are more Malay families tuning into Singapore Idol than Chinese.

But so what if there are more Malays watching than chinese? Isn't everyone Singaporean? What talk about races?

Malay community is one of the most united communities in Singapore. The chinese? We always treat cautiously when we meet another stranger, wondering if the chinese is out to take advantage of you. The Malays treat another Malay like one big family.

My point?

Malay will definitely vote for Hady. They might also vote for Jonathon. But they ensure they have 1 more vote for Hady. The Chinese have no such loyalty. They vote who they believe should win. Chinese who voted for Hady will not vote for Jonathon and vice versa.

There lies such cultural differences. Singapore Idol will not work in Singapore. Period.

My friend? She is a chinese.